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From Liverpoolfc.tv
WHY TORRES TICKS THE TACTICAL BOXES
For starters, it's a phrase that's been abused too often in the past. He's here to improve the team as much as possible, not to 'complete' it.
But make no mistake: this is, in himself, a complete centre-forward, with the potential to get better still.
And most importantly, one who changes the dynamics of Liverpool's attack.
Irrespective of his individual ability, which people will always quibble about ('is he world-class?', 'does he score enough goals?', etc), Torres is the type of player who will not only suit Benítez's system but combine unique individual talents with a mature team ethic.
Whether or not he is worth £20m is moot. If you can buy one individual who, as well as contributing directly himself, brings the best out of four or five others, then how do you put a price on that?
And, of course, what he is worth to Liverpool depends on how much he gives the club over the next half-decade (or more), not how he does in the first few weeks of the season when the critics will be hyper-sensitive.
If, in the next few years, he helps land some of the trophies that matter, that will justify the outlay. He doesn't have to score 50 goals and win the World Player of the Year, simply help the team win games. Wayne Rooney only scored 14 league goals last season, but he contributed in a number of ways to United's title success.
Reading a whole host of testimonials made in recent years by many of the the leading lights of the Spanish game –– Frank Rijkaard, Raul, Ronaldo, David Beckham –– it's clear just how highly rated Torres is.
They have waxed lyrical about him. The same applies to his ex-coaches, from youth level up to first-team bosses, and some of La Liga's retired greats.
Each talks in awed terms of Torres' pace, his power, and his skill. But perhaps more tellingly, every last one mentions at least one aspect of his psychological make-up. Because more than anything, it is this last thing that will determine just how much of a success he proves in English football, and is what gives him a much better chance than most.
He is labelled mature, determined, responsible, mentally strong and a winner. To captain Spain's third-biggest club at the age of 19 highlights remarkable personal qualities.
But to also be its local hero, talisman, and principle goalscorer, when that team lacked overall quality, speaks of an ability to handle immense pressure. While he now has the new pressure of a big price tag, he has, at long last, lost the overwhelming burden of carrying an entire club. At Liverpool, others will share that weight.
How he will fare in English football cannot be foretold –– no signing comes with a guarantee –– but what's clear is that Torres has the potential to be a legend at Anfield.
He has never worked with a coach anywhere near as good as Benítez, and certainly not played with so many top-class players at club level. He has the ability, in the right setting, to see his game go up a notch or two from his previously impressive highs.
Torres is not a player whose reputation has been founded on hard, cold figures; he was not so prolific in Spain that his stats were uttered in hushed tones, as proof of some outrageous talent. Having said that, 75 league goals in 173 games, which edges close to a goal every other game, is still a fine record.
But as regular watchers of Spanish football will attest to, he is a footballer who needs to be seen, a footballer capable of special things.
Rather than a great goalscorer, he had been a scorer of great goals. While he may never be ultra-prolific, Torres has that gift of scoring goals out of nothing: a curling shot from distance, an outrageous lob from an unlikely angle, a spectacular flying volley, a thumping header.
It's said by some that Torres misses too many chances. It's also noted that he has never hit 20 league goals, although having managed 19, that's a tad pedantic. In that sense he's like Michael Owen: his best league total for Liverpool was 19, and he was also accused of missing too many chances. But good strikers aren't afraid to miss. The best keep getting back in there, and win the team enough games when it matters. Bad strikers are the ones who never miss any because they shy away.
Torres is also someone who, like Thierry Henry, can create his own chances. And that's a priceless commodity. Anyone who can score goals out of nothing is a valuable asset. Torres runs at defenders with pace and directness (but also intelligence), and that in itself can win a host of free-kicks and penalties, and simply create panic in opposition defences.
Of course, 'panic' is not measured by statistics. But it makes defences crumble, and others can profit. Like Henry, he can drift wide to where he is very comfortable, either to pick the ball up and run infield to shoot, or merely to create space, or chances, for others.
From a tactical point of view Torres ticks all the boxes. The Reds now have a quick striker who can play centrally, either in a pair or, as he did in Spain, on his own: something that never suits smaller strikers, who can't offer the physical presence, and usually require a 'bodyguard'. It instantly limits things, if you have to include one player just to get the best out of another.
It's not so much the quantity of goals Torres will score that will elevate the team, but his ability to score the kind of goals that few other strikers can, and to offer a different threat to the Reds' top duo last season.
While Kuyt and Crouch shared an impressive 32 goals last season, 30 came from within the penalty area. But it's not just that the pair finished these chances in the box –– without fail, they either received the ball inside the box or right on the very edge. That requires accurate supply. What Torres provides is the ability to take the ball into the box himself, perhaps from as far back as his own half; or to score from outside the box with his powerful shooting.
Complete
One thing Rafa Benítez was not able to utilise during his first three years was a 'complete' centre-forward: the quick, strong and tall striker who could be relied upon to score goals as well as link play intelligently, create chances for others, work for the team and hold the ball up.
By this I mean someone along the lines of Didier Drogba and Thierry Henry, or going a little further back, Blackburn-era Alan Shearer, when at his quickest, or Nicolas Anelka, when he burst onto the scene. Ruud van Nistelrooy, when he wasn't being blown over by a gust of wind, was another. It's notable that the aforementioned players all led the line in league title triumphs.
Kuyt and Crouch remain hugely effective players and, in their mid-20s, are still improving. No one in England offers more sweat for the cause than Kuyt –– again, stats don't really measure how the Reds won games like the one in Barcelona, in large part down to his sheer leg-work –– and no other striker in the Premiership can pose the kind of problems Crouch does.
But teams are so much more dangerous with pace in attack, and either of Kuyt or Crouch would benefit from playing alongside Torres, with his ability to get in behind defences. Torres can help Kuyt and Crouch bag more goals, and that's one of the reasons he's been bought. Not to score them all himself. Thirteen of Kuyt's 14 goals last season were close-range finishes, so getting him into those areas more often will help the team. Remember, this is also a player who hit the woodwork seven times, all with fine efforts.
Also, with so many talented midfielders now at the club, Torres gives the option of an attacking 4-5-1, particularly away from home in tougher arenas, where the Spaniard can do the lone striker stuff so well, but also help lead the kinds of lightning breaks that can win such matches.
While Torres' goals record is not remarkable, there are precedents that suggest he could yet turn into a real goal-machine. There are no guarantees, of course, and there will always be so much more to his game than goals, but two of modern football's greatest goal-getters were actually far less prolific at the same stage of their careers.
Torres arrives in England a fraction older than Theirry Henry was when he started his Highbury love-in. Before his move to London, Henry had scored just 23 league goals in 126 games for Monaco and Juventus. While also sometimes utilised as a winger, Henry was not noted for his clinical finishing when playing as a striker.
In a better team, and under a compatriot and mentor who thoroughly understood him, Henry came of age at Arsenal. His career strike rate went from a goal every five games to better than a goal every 1.5 games for Arsenal.
So if that's the example of the overseas' star who came good at 22/23, you can also look at another example closer to home.
Alan Shearer showed little sign of what was to come when, aged 22, he moved from Southampton to Blackburn in 1992. While he'd just enjoyed a fine season at the Dell, he left the south coast with very similar figures to pre-Arsenal Thierry Henry: 23 league goals in 118 games.
In four seasons at the Lancashire club he notched a phenomenal 112 Premiership goals in just 138 games, followed by 148 in 303 league games for Newcastle.
This is not to say Torres will automatically follow suit. But it does show that, at 23, some goalscorers are yet to reach their full potential, and a move to a better team can help unlock it.
Luis Garcia, a great little player, will be missed. But it's a team taking on a new shape.
Harry Kewell is fit and ready, and, if his problems are behind him and he can retain his pace and power, should be like signing a new top-class player.
Andrei Voronin, who often plays behind the main striker and who can also play in midfield, is another quick and powerful frontrunner. Not an out-and-out striker, he averaged a respectable one-in-three for Bayer Leverkusen, and is someone who can fit Benítez's ideal of four attacking players sharing 15 goals each. It's clear the Reds will be a big, strong side –– but, crucially, not at the expense of skill. All of these are technically gifted players.
While the elements continue to fall into place, the opposition haven't been idle, either, and even mid-tier teams are spending fortunes. While Torres will almost certainly improve the Reds significantly, the competition for the title will be hotter than ever.
All Benítez can do is make Liverpool better, and for me, Torres is one player who perfectly fits the bill.
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